Text Size

-

+

reset

In January 2012, the report found, the Cincinnati employees changed their search terms again — without telling management — after Lerner reined them in. This time, the search terms weren’t as specific as “tea party” and “9/12,” but they still focused on political positions like “limiting/expanding government” and “social economic reform/movement.”

Once again, top IRS officials had to step in and broaden the screening terms — and this time, the employees got a memo saying any other changes had better be approved by IRS management.

Levin used much of his questioning time to emphasize that lower level IRS employees actually went out of their way to continue targeting conservative groups — even after their superiors told them their searches were unacceptable.

“[Lerner] ordered they be changed, is that correct?” Levin asked Miller, noting that the inspector general report says the head director of exempt organizations told them to scratch the words like “tea party” and “Patriot” from their searches as soon as she learned they were being used in July 2011.

Miller responded yes.

“This change was again made without executive approval. Is that correct?” Levin continued. Miller again answered yes.

The inspector general report says the specialists reinstated, and even expanded, the politically sensitive criteria to target conservative groups in January 2012 without approval from their bosses because “they believed the July 2011 criteria were too broad.”

Republicans will try to resist the show — good luck

Top Republicans may want to make sure their party doesn’t go overboard, but that’s proving awfully tough when the IRS is so easy to kick to the ground.

“This is a Pandora’s box,” Mike Kelly of Pennsylvania thundered. “This is a huge blow to the faith and trust the American people have in their government. … Is there any question you shouldn’t have asked? My goodness — how much money do you have in your wallet?”

Kelly’s speech drew a loud round of applause from the audience at the hearing, including a standing ovation from a few of the audience members.

There were plenty of crowd-pleasing insults, too. “You’re saying the IRS is not corrupt, but the subtext of that is that you’re just incompetent,” said Peter Roskam of Illinois. “That’s a fairly perilous path to go down.”

It wasn’t just speechifying — some of the Republicans couldn’t resist taking whack after whack at Miller over questions he’d already gotten many times.

“You raised your right hand today, did this committee have the right to know?” asked Dave Reichert of Washington.

“I answered all questions truthfully,” Miller said.

Reichert gave up and told Miller, “you’re not cooperating.”

And some couldn’t resist suggesting that Miller — the guy who spent nearly four hours catching arrows after losing his job — hadn’t suffered enough.

“In my private sector experience, you would have been fired on the spot,” said Tom Reed of New York. “Nothing bad is going to happen to you, you’re going to get your full benefits.”